Heading over to cairns in late September early October for a family holiday but hoping to sneak away for a couple of day trips and was wondering if anyone could recommend a charter or has any tips?

Should I take my own gear or just hire equipment as will only be doing 2 to 6 dives depending on how much sneaking I can get away with. Will be taking my dive computer with me

Hi Netmystar,

Natny and I did Cairns and Port Douglas about 2 years ago. We were newly certified divers, did 3 days out on the reef, and it was great.

In Cairns, we used Tusa Dive. We chose them as we didn't want to be on a cattle ship or go out to the pontoons with all the masses of people, and they were ideal due to them being a smaller outfit. But they have a bigger boat now, so check their numbers. Overall they were very good.

In Port Douglas, we went out twice with Aristocat. The boat takes about 120 or so I think, which is actually one of the smaller ones that head out from Port (that do scuba). They were great.

Gear wise, all we took were mask, fins, and snorkel. The rental gear was all pretty basic, but suited the nice easy diving we did. I would take your own mask as a bare minimum. And take fins if you hate the full foot rubber ones like I do.

The dives were cool at the time, but these were our 7th to 12th dives I believe, and looking back would be pretty average now. If I went back now I would definitely try and go for a liveaboard and head further north, if possible.